Can students request their exam scripts under the Freedom of Information Act?
Students are not entitled to see the exam scripts of other students. Exam scripts are considered personal information about the individual student who wrote the script and are covered by the Data Protection Act 1998. Under the Data Protection Act students are entitled to see information that the University holds about them unless an exemption applies. The Data Protection Act provides an exemption for exam scripts but not for any comments that are made on the script. This means that the law entitles students to access to the comments on the exam scripts (whether written on the script or attached on a piece of paper) but not the scripts themselves. However, there may be other reasons why it may be appropriate for students to be given access to their exam scripts in line with University policy and in addition to their legal rights. The normal timescale for responding to requests for personal information under the Data Protection Act is 40 calendar days. If a request is received for examin
